Bottom-up virtual reality modelling of a two-dimensional truss

Contemporary structural design methods do not allow for a time efficient dynamic review of the design in progress, and for an easy assessment of implications of late design changes. Being an iterative process, structural design is time consuming for engineers, and results are difficult for clients to visualise. This is due to a global top-down algorithm that controls the solution process of a system of simultaneous algebraic equations that describe the structure. The main objective of the research presented in this paper was to produce a more efficient method of structural analysis, based on bottom-up object-oriented modelling principles in virtual reality (VR).